BEIJING (AP) — China raised import duties on a $3 billion list of U.S. pork, apples and other products Monday in an escalating dispute with Washington over trade and industrial policy.

The government of President Xi Jinping said it was responding to a U.S. tariff hike on steel and aluminum. But that is just one facet of sprawling tensions with Washington, Europe and Japan over a state-led economic model they complain hampers market access, protects Chinese companies and subsidizes exports in violation of Beijing’s free-trade commitments.

Already, companies are looking ahead to a bigger fight over U.S. President Donald Trump’s approval of higher duties on up to $50 billion of Chinese goods in response to complaints that Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology.

Forecasters say the impact of Monday’s move should be limited, but investors worry the global recovery might be set back if other governments respond by raising import barriers.

On Monday, the main stock market indexes in Tokyo and Shanghai ended the day down.

The tariffs “signal a most unwelcome development, which is that countries are becoming protectionist,” said economist Taimur Baig of DBS Group. But in commercial terms, they are “not very substantial” compared with China’s $150 billion in annual imports of U.S. goods, he said.

Monday’s tariff increase will hit American farm states, many of which voted for Trump in 2016.

The USA is expected to move forward with tariffs against China this week:

Trump will take his trade war to China’s tech sector this week

April 2, 2018

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration this week will unveil the list of Chinese imports targeted for US tariffs to punish Beijing over technology transfer policies, a move expected to intensify trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

The list of $50 billion to $60 billion worth of annual imports is expected to target “largely high-technology” products, and it may be more than two months before tariffs take effect, administration officials have said.

Donald Trump has stated his firm opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) [Trade: Donald J. Trump’s Vision. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/trade accessed December 16, 2016]. However, various members of his staff support it. Without something like TPP, many nations who were involved with it are likely to move closer to China, as opposed to away from it as China was not part of TPP [Timiraos N. Donald Trump Is Staffing His Administration with TPP Supporters. Wall Street Journal, December 8, 2016].

Donald Trump’s election has been pointed to as the end of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) trade agreement involving the USA and Europe [Kassam R. EU Accepts TTIP Deal Dead Due To Trump Presidency.Breibart, November 11, 2016].

Donald Trump has called for “fair trade” and indicated that various nations, including several in Asia, are not engaged in fair trade, so he has proposed high tariffs [Trade: Donald J. Trump’s Vision. https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/trade accessed December 16, 2016].

Some believe that Donald Trump’s positions on trade will lead to a global trade war that could trigger some type of international war [Katasonov V. Only One Step Away from a Global Trade War. Strategic Culture Foundation, December 12, 2016]. It is my position that trade disputes will be a factor in Europe taking military action against the U.S.A. one day. (Thiel B. Donald Trump and America’s Apocalypse. Nazarene Books, 2017)

The talk of trade wars is something I have warned about on this page for years.

7. Trade

Not all warfare is militaristic. There is also economic warfare.

This often involves trade.

Notice some warnings from COG writers:

Trade War Looming to Trigger World War III?

Either we start raising high tariff barriers against other countries, starting a TRADE WAR which in time will trigger the nuclear war that will DESTROY US – or, American workers are going to have to MEET the competition of the workers in other countries , by lowering living standards. Obviously American workers are not going to choose to do the latter. And if they don’t – well, THE HANDWRITING IS ON OUR NATIONAL WALL. (Armstrong HW. Trade War Looming to Trigger World War III? Plain Truth, March 1971)

Dangerous Security Changes

Other experts warn that American political leaders — responding to calls for immediate competitive relief from their constituents — may be ignoring another lesson of the Great Depression: that the severe contraction of world trade gave added impetus to imperialist surges in Asia and Europe, specifically Japan and Germany.

Since 1945 Japan has chosen the mercantile road as its path to power, prestige and national restoration. Germany, specifically the Federal Republic of Germany, is heavily dependent upon world trade, exporting a full third of its manufactured goods.

Access to the U.S. market is central to the economies of Japan and the other nations of the Pacific Basin, writes National Review executive editor John McLaughlin, “and hence perhaps to their stability.” If protectionism takes hold, what would happen to Japan and to Western Europe, whose economic heart is in Germany? Protectionism, leading to a full-blown trade war, would likely break the extensive joint defense relationships between the U.S. and its primary World War II foes, now allies for the past 40 years.

Americans should then prepare to witness the emergence of a nuclear — armed Japan as well as a nuclear — armed united Europe with Germany at its core. It’s doubtful whether the American public and its elected representatives have thought out the likely end results of actions now under way.

Former Senate majority leader Howard H. Baker Jr. sounded this warning: “The disastrous Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was rushed through Congress… and it took 14 years and a world war to straighten out the mess.” (Hogberg G. Prepare for Trade War! Plain Truth, January 1986)

The Brits will ultimately decide that they are more supportive of the Americans and Canadians. They will be so much more supportive that they will end up in a trading agreement with them (with the Australians and New Zealanders probably also becoming part of that agreement).

The EU will decide that Mexico and the rest of Latin America are in more agreement with it and thus make some type of serious trading agreement with most (or all) of Latin America. The Vatican will also have influence here as Latin America is highly Roman Catholic. (Thiel B. A Combined EU & North American Trade Block Coming? COGwriter.com, March 3, 2008)

Either we start raising high tariff barriers against other countries, starting a TRADE WAR which in time will trigger the nuclear war that will DESTROY US – or, American workers are going to have to MEET the competition of the workers in other countries , by lowering living standards. Obviously American workers are not going to choose to do the latter. And if they don’t – well, THE HANDWRITING IS ON OUR NATIONAL WALL. (Armstrong HW. Trade War Looming to Trigger World War III? Plain Truth, 1971)

And while his basic impression of timing was off, it is correct that trade issues will be a factor that will trigger WWIII. A war that will be against the USA, Canada, and UK and led by a power that will reorganize (Revelation 17:12-13) and then rise in Europe. A Europe that is angry at the UK for Brexit and one that is mad at the USA for a host of reasons (including decisions of its former President Obama and statements by its current President Donald Trump).

Trade wars tend to increase prices and affect jobs. Basically, that is the point.

China, itself, would like to dominate the world.

China is really concerned that a trade war will hurt it and its ambitions.

Last week, China launched a future’s item that has been called the Petro-yuan. Its intent is to increase the economic influence of China while also reducing the primacy of the US dollar for international trade (watch also US Dollar being challenged by Gold-Petro-Yuan).

Though many are focused on China, let me make it clear that the power that the Bible reveals that will dominate trade later this century is not China or the USA, but Europe (cf. Revelation 18).

The rhetoric of the Trump Administration has already pushed the Chinese and the Europeans to talk more about mutual trade.

The end of Anglo-American dominance of world trade and the world economy is getting closer to ending.